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"Nintendo finally gets a
break. The myth of the GameCube being a "kiddie
kart" has been blown out of the water and beached
for life..."
intro
What seems like an eternity ago, the first Resident
Evil hit the US market in 1996 on the Sony
Playstation. The series has turned out to be the real
forefather of the survival-horror genre. The name
Resident Evil has become a household name for
gamers around the world, and Capcom has set the
standards for other survival-horror games from then on.
Games such as Silent Hill and Parasite Eve
have been somewhat successful, but none match the
familiarity of the RE series.
Since the original in '96 was released, there have been
a handful of newer releases all with their good and bad
points. Where I first had to give props to Capcom was
for actually not producing a new hybrid of the RE
series. Instead, they opted to revamp the original game
and making it breathtaking. While Resident Evil X
is still in the works; this revamp really sets an
awesome tempo for the GameCube.
As for storylines, the premise is quite elementary. You
play the role of either Chris Redfield or Jill
Valentine, part of an elite rescue investigation team.
Sent to a remote location outside a small town, you are
investigating some missing team-members. Things go from
bad to worse, and you are stranded alone with nothing
more than your wits to get you through the inevitable
horror that is to come...
If you are familiar with the series, much of the scenery
and especially the characters are familiar. Kind of like
seeing an old friend...
Death is only the beginning...
Your first setting at the game will flood you with a mix
of emotions. The first feeling you get will be how
amazingly beautifully the game is. Once you get past the
visuals and the videos, you now have to actually play
the game. The control is something that can make or
break a game such as RE. I personally hated the
controls in Silent Hill 2 and even past RE games were
fairly unmanageable. As I stood in a huge entranceway in
the mansion, it took me a few seconds to even move. And
when I did, my smile faded when I tried to move...
The default controls are simply horrible. To be fully
honest, every control set took some getting used to, and
I'm puzzled on why Capcom would make such sloppy
controls. The game looked and played like an old version
of Dragons Lair. The saving grace here, is that
there are three control sets that you can choose from. I
personally prefer the third set. This set uses the
buttons to move your character, and the analog
controller is used to turn and walk backwards. The
shoulder buttons are used to pull your weapon out and
the other to fire.
Even looking at the controls is a bit obscure. The
controls are fairly sloppy, loose and many times
unmanageable. Many players who have little patience will
play for about 15-minutes, come to the first zombie and
turn the game off. To make matters even worse, the
camera angles are darn near impossible at times. I see
where Capcom was going with the whole
"cinematic-movie" feel (and pulls it off
brilliantly), but many times you would be a sitting
duck for relentless zombies, for you couldn't see around
the corners; or would get stuck with a dreadful view.
As bad as the controls are initially, I implore you not
to give up so easily. Stick with one control set, spend
about an hour (yes an hour) just walking around
the first floor and exploring the area. The controls
then become a bit warmer, and working the camera for you
instead of against you becomes a game of trial and
error.
Willy Wonka?
Sticking true-to-form with other survival-horror games
and the series itself, the game isn't totally about
blasting up mangled zombies and picking up cool items.
The largest part of the game is puzzle interaction as
well as riddles and exploration. Puzzles and riddles
range from pushing and pulling blocks to finding the
right symbol to open a door. This also leads to the
linear play of the game. As huge as the mansion is;
there is a step-by-step process that needs to be done in
a certain order. This shouldn't deter gamers, because
the game really never feels like you are confined.
I have to admit, that the puzzles are generally
rewarding but at times you might have to sneak a cheat
in once in a while. I found myself on a handful of
occasions nearly swinging for the fences with no clue
what to do. I broke down on two occasions and visited
gamefaqs.com (you know you do to sometimes so I don't
even want to hear it...) and checked out what I was
missing... To add even more complications to the puzzle
solving, your inventory is limited to only a few slots.
This means utilizing the right tools, items and ammo are
crucial to the success of your game. This does become
rather tedious, because you have to either drop
something in your inventory or hike all the way back to
your storage...
Where RE succeeds where others have failed, is the true
realistic fear that it produces. Playing by
yourself is not recommended. Adding to the
realism, you will rarely simply blast your way through
any part of the game. The first few hours of the game
require exploring the mansions inch by inch and
either avoiding zombies or making a critical strike.
Weapons and ammo are very limited, and depending
on where you shoot a zombie at depends on how many shots
it will take. This means use your weapon sparingly.
Along your "journey" you can also pick up
defensive items. Once equipped, and a zombie grabs you
from behind, it will automatically (if you so choose)
pull out the item; such as a knife, and drive it deep in
the zombies face. Nice. On the subject of weapons, it is
a slow process. Starting off with the pistol (depending
on which character you choose), things really don't
pick up until you obtain the shotgun; which will
literally blow you away. You will find out that weapons
aren't your only method of destroying zombies, but half
the fun of the game is figuring out that yourself...
Aside from the sneaky AI of the zombies, and the actual
brains it takes to play the game; RE takes about 20
hours to complete (and that's on easy). The pace
of the game is very slow, and there is never room to
speed through any part of it. RE is more of an
interactive movie than an adventure game. You will find
yourself soaking in the environments, and sneaking
around hoping not to run into a gruesome zombie.
If replay value is your thing, RE really does pack a
punch in this two-disk set. Since you can choose one of
two characters; each one has their benefits weaknesses.
And each storyline runs parallel with each other and
crosses paths on more than one occasion. According to
Capcom's website, there are ten different endings
in the game. I love games that do this, and the first
that comes to mind is Star Ocean; in which there
were dozens of unique endings. So, depending on
what actions you take during different events within the
game determine the outcome of the ending. Hats off to
Capcom for making games original and interactive.
Excuse me sir, do you know your flesh is melting?
Everyone’s heard the hype about the graphics and how
fabulous they are. Is it all it is cracked up to be? Yes
and no. I'll start with the "no's" simply
because the "yes's" far outweigh them. The
biggest problem is the actual performance of the
visuals. FMV's take a while to get "kick
started", and seem a bit choppier than one would
like. Another frustrating issue is the fluidity of the
game. As gorgeous as the game is (and dang is
gorgeous) the penalty for this is the load times.
The game needs to load every time you walk through a
door. After the fourth hour of play you will swear if
you see one more "open door animation" that
you will scream.
Onto the good... The graphics are good, the end. No
really, they are the best visuals out there on any
system, console, PC or standalone. Not only are the
graphics simply breathtaking, the complete mood of the
game just oozes with style. Shadows and lighting effects
are second to none, and I stood in one place for minutes
at a time just soaking in the complexity of the lighting
effects. Any gamer will truly appreciate the ambience
and downright creepiness of the game. The good really
did outweigh the bad, and I couldn't believe that
Nintendo pulled off such amazing effects with minor
complaints of performance. To be 100% honest, every
detail imaginable is here. Everything from the animation
of the characters, to the flicker of the candlelight.
Zombies are totally disgusting, flesh dripping and blood
running from any open oraphus. Simply writing words on
how cinematic the animations are just don't do the game
justice. Even downloading movies or screenshots can't
capture the atmosphere that Resident Evil puts on
the table. It really must be seen to be believed.
Where would a good survival-horror game be without an
atmospheric soundtrack? The game rewards you well with
an ambience that few other games could ever produce.
Zombies creep and moan, and the drippings of water add
to the aura that completely encompasses you. The sound
effects are dynamic and change according to the
surroundings, and the use of timing is perfect. A
dead silence will fall at times, and all you hear is the
scraping of flesh against a door. These all add up to
make the entire game an experience. There are two
huge whopping no-nos on the audio side however. The
biggest flaw is the pitiful excuse for voice acting. The
dialogue is quirky (not as bad as SH2) and
unrealistic. It's just plain bad. The second no-no, is
the lack of a Dolby Digital or even Dolby Surround
feature. Instead, the game relies on old-school stereo
surround sound. For the most part it gets the job done,
but I can only imagine how great this would have sounded
on the XBOX utilizing 5.1.
66 Says:
Short and sweet. Resident Evil is a game I could
have easily wasted thousands of words on, for the
experience is the best to date on the GameCube. Aside
from the brilliant display of graphics and atmosphere,
the game is still a solid title. The flaws intertwined
within the constructs, really don't deter the game as
much as you would think.
A rental this is not. It would be almost an
embarrassment to rent this game. The game really doesn't
even pick up until the third or fourth hour into
gameplay. This is a must buy for any GameCube
owner. Even if you just want to bask in the glow of the
haunting visuals, it is well worth the price of the
game. Many players looking for a quick pick-up game will
be highly disappointed, simply because the controls are
not user friendly.
The game has nearly endless replay value, and should
keep RE fans busy until the next release that should be
Nintendo specific as well. Finally, GC fans have
something to cheer about. Finally, GC fans have
something to say "na-na-nah-nah-boo-boo" to XB
and PS2 owners...
Finally.
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